Poor start for home boxers at Bali meet

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): Indonesian boxers were knocked out in the opening match of the 19th President's Cup at the Area Court in the Grand Bali Beach hotel in Sanur, Bali, on Thursday.

Dedek Chandra of the Jakarta-based Garuda A boxing camp was outclassed 3-10 by Kedam Naccer of Algeria in four rounds of the flyweight division.

Dedek received successive hooks to his left and right and failed to fight back until the second round was over. In the last round, Dedek managed to send several uppercuts but they failed to nail the target.

Dedek managed to land a few blows to Naccer through the fourth round.

Dedek's teammate Moh. Ibrahim bowed out to Medjehoud Nouredine, also from Algeria, in a humiliating 1-9 defeat in the featherweight division.

Another Indonesian, Meckson Barataman, who was expected to be a surprise, was powerless before M. Suranjit Singh of India and bowed out 2-9 in the light welterweight division bout.

Singh did not give a single chance for Barataman, who joins the Garuda team, to resist his attack.

Indonesian boxers are put on the Garuda team and second stringers are included on the Rajawali team. Forty boxers from 24 countries are taking part in the tournament, which will end on Aug. 3. Seven weight divisions are featured in this event.

In his opening speech, State Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Mahadi Sinambela expressed hope that Indonesia would develop a better image as a peaceful country in the international community by staging the tournament.

"Through this tournament, we want to show the world that social unrest does not happen in all the provinces as has been reported in foreign newspapers," he said. (Bona Beding)

Selected result (as of 7 p.m.)

flyweight division: Rahib Ahmad (Mal) bt Giris Pawar (Ind) 10-3; Rahimi M.R. (Irn) bt Anatoly Lebedev (Rus) 14-9; Somjit Jongjohor (Tha) bt Aizawa Kunihiro (Jpn) 16-5; Lin Yung Hsiang (Tpe) bt N Holapathipong (Lao) with RSC in the 4th round; Daniel Dance (Mex) bt R.M.AB. Retnayaka (Sri) 13-10.

featherweight division: Suttisak Samaksaman (Tha) bt Adnan Yusoh (Mal) 10-4; Sergei Pouljkevich (Rus) bt Batmani B (Irn) 7-5; Haider Ali (Pak) bt Yoshimura Yasunori (Jpn) 9-7; Fransisco Arevalos (Mex) bt Chen Kuan Chin (Tpe) with RSC in 3rd round; James Swan (Aus) bt N.B.Walisundara (Sri) 12-3.